Tag Archives: Mission Trips

When we turn the page on the calendar, we often do not look back at the goals of the year before. If you’re like me, you are always looking forward. It is important to take a moment to see how well you did in the goals you set. Because what good are goals is they are set and never met. Here’s a look at how last year’s goals went, to celebrate some victories but also discuss some obstacles you may face.

New Book! – Blessing to announce my 1st book has been published and my goal is for 1,000 copies to be sold to help people fall in love with God’s Word.

Grade: C. Got about halfway to my goal this year. While that’s a little disappointing, how God has used the book is not. The book is now in the hands of missionaries across the world, youth groups across the country, and in the homes of dear families I care about. Even in defeat, that is an incredible victory. Feel free to check it out at http://www.bottomlinedevotional.com

New Curriculum Plan! – Hard to believe this is my 6th year ministering at MBC, which mean a new 6 year plan will be put in place—with the input of parents, students, and research this plan will be implemented in the fall of 2017.

Grade: A. Mission accomplished. With the help of parents, leaders, & students, I was able to produce a sparkling new 6 year curriculum to allow parents to see a plan is in place for their teenager in every year of youth ministry.

Mentoring – Teach a 2 week Mentoring series to encourage mentoring of generations within the church.

Grade: B-. Sure, the class went well and had great interaction. However, it’s been a slow process to see this culture happen within the church. Have I seen some growth? Absolutely. But i would love for more to catch the mentoring bug.

Short Term Mission Trip – Due to monthly local mission project, the 3 year cycle is now work trip, out-of-state, international trip. This year we will be traveling for our work trip.

Grade: A. What a great week. God provided for us to go work at a camp in New York. The teens worked hard, grew in their walk with Christ, and found it a positive time of unity and service.

Life After High School Series—Special speakers to speak on after high school temptations like drugs, how to witness after high school, and leader advice for the young adult years.

Grade: A. One of my all-time favorite student ministry series. You can check it out in detail here.

Public School Partnership – Continue to find ways to partner with local schools to serve them and bring the hope of Jesus Christ to students.

Grade: B-. While we have been able to have a steady presence at the high school, we have seen limited growth. And the middle school partnership has not materialized. Praying God will open doors and I’d be bold enough to walk through the opening.

Social Media Interaction – Bolster ministry social media footprint with student leadership help and more interaction on Facebook.

Grade: B+. Assigned a student as the social media coordinator, and seen an improvement in interaction. Still working on ways to make this even more interactive.

Implement G.R.O.W.T.H Chart– Encourage parents to follow chart of spiritual growth for their students and provide training and help for students to reach these spiritual goals.

Grade: B. Through parent/pastor conferences, this has come a little more alive. Still could use more improvement, but a step in the right direction.

Well, I passed 2017. Maybe not on the honor roll this year, but God certainly blessed, and I praise Him for all the victories and lessons He has taught me along the way.

Let’s face it. Mission Trips can be expensive. Travel expenses, training materials, ministry supplies, possible medical expenses, meals, housing…and the list goes on. Is the expense worth it? Absolutely. I’m on record that short-term mission trips can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to provide long-lasting spiritual life change. BUT…there are times when the expense of a trip is simply too much. So what do you do when you can’t afford to go on a mission trip? To put it simply, look out your window!

Each year, we host a summer mission project for our junior high students. It is a mission trip literally in our backyard. It teaches them how to participate in a mission trip setting, and helps their love for serving others to grow.

Below are some examples of projects we have done in the past or plan to do in the future that are inexpensive projects that can serve as your summer’s mission trip:

Landscape a neighboring apartment complex

Yard Work for elderly of your church

Help with end of the year cleaning at the local school

Plant a community garden

Trash pickup along the roads of your community

Free Garage Sale for community

Vacation Bible School Projects

Clean nursery toys

Church Spring Cleaning

That should get you started. Even if you do international trips at your church, I strongly encourage you to try some community projects either in the summer or throughout the year. After all, if you are not serving in the community you are in now, how can you serve in someone else’s community?

Another year and more goals for the Lord to accomplish! It’s great to look forward to another year of serving in youth ministry and another year of God doing amazing things. This is just the tip of the iceberg…because I know God will do so much more. But still, it’s always good to put goals out there to aim at as the Lord directs our shots.

New Book! – Blessing to announce my 1st book has been published and my goal is for 1,000 copies to be sold to help people fall in love with God’s Word.

New Curriculum Plan! – Hard to believe this is my 6th year ministering at MBC, which mean a new 6 year plan will be put in place—with the input of parents, students, and research this plan will be implemented in the fall of 2017.

Mentoring – Teach a 2 week Mentoring series to encourage mentoring of generations within the church.

Short Term Mission Trip – Due to monthly local mission project, the 3 year cycle is now work trip, out-of-state, international trip. This year we will be traveling for our work trip.

Life After High School Series—Special speakers to speak on after high school temptations like drugs, how to witness after high school, and leader advice for the young adult years.

Public School Partnership – Continue to find ways to partner with local schools to serve them and bring the hope of Jesus Christ to students.

Social Media Interaction – Bolster ministry social media footprint with student leadership help and more interaction on Facebook.

Implement G.R.O.W.T.H Chart– Encourage parents to follow chart of spiritual growth for their students and provide training and help for students to reach these spiritual goals.

God’s Peace. When you are doing something that brings glory to the Father, He will give you the peace you need. Leaving your family and kids for a week is not easy. Leaving your wife and kids for a week to leave out of the country is a whole new level. I’ll be honest, it was a struggle to say goodbye as my little girls gave me their final hugs to their daddy. But, as soon as I entered the airport terminal, and immediate feeling of peace and security overwhelmed my spirit. God gave me His peace right when I needed it.

Sometimes Things Get Dirty. The low-light of my trip taught me a great lesson. I was having so much fun playing soccer with the kids after our gospel kid’s program. One of the kids kicked the ball to me, and as I attempted to head it into the “goal” (two tree branches in the ground), my back foot slipped out from under me and I landed head first in a huge mud puddle. I was covered in mud from head to toe. But it was in that moment that God taught me. The pastor’s son began to take off his shirt to give to me to wear…a young man, who I later saw wearing that same shirt (probably one of the few he owned) was willing to give up something for me, whom he just met. Talk about being humbled. Not because I was full of mud, but by this young man’s willingness to give. Lesson learned. Be willing to give, even when you have little to give.

Gratefulness. No running water for 4 days. Houses made of plastic and tin metal. Toilets flushed with a bucket. House walkways covered in trash ankle-deep. Kids abused and neglected. If I can’t have gratefulness after this experience…shame on me. And shame on me for any covetousness I will have for the rest of my life.

Significance of the Program. In America, a puppet program may be boring or even weird for the kids. After all, it’s tough to compete with Pixar, Dreamworks, and Sesame Street. But where we were, these kids had very little. It made our program more significant. Not because we wanted to the focus of the attention, but because we wanted to bring these kids something very special. It really put things in perspective.

Minister Like a Mission Trip. Oftentimes we go all out for mission trips and pour our hearts into these trips. There is no reason this should not happen here. Do I have the same passion for the kids in VBS, AWANA, and Sunday School? I hope so. But reality is, there are times when I become complacent. Lord, help me ministry everyday with a passion for sharing Jesus and his love with kids, in Central America, in Africa, and in America.

God’s Grace. When you see little kids bringing their toddler siblings to these programs, often feeding them with a bottle and putting them to sleep, you can’t help but see God’s grace. I saw God’s grace in how a little girl brought her twin baby brothers to a feeding center and the little boys did not make a peep. I saw God’s grace in a 5-year-old boy who brought a one year old to the children’s center and never heard the little girl cry. “Let the little children come to me”…well, I saw this happen right in front of me. I saw how God allowed these children to come, by His grace.

Be in the Moment. If I was transparent, there were times where I could have mailed it in, and just taken a rest from a full trip. One such moment was after teaching an adult Sunday school class in a small rural church. Instead, a little girl caught the corner of my eye. She was three, and as cute as could be. I reached my hands out during the final songs of the service, and she jumped in my arms. Her grandmother in front of me, with a big smile on her face. I asked where her mother was, and I recognized the Spanish word that came next…muerta. Her mother was dead, and the grandmother was taking care of her, and 3 other siblings. My heart broke as I held this little girl in my arms. If I would have mailed it in, I would have missed these hugs, I would have missed this story, I would have missed the opportunity to tell the grandmother I would be praying for her. Lord, help me be in the moment more in my life. I don’t want to miss these moments.

Thank you for all your prayers this past week. God truly blessed, and my life will never be the same. I’ve always said that mission trips are life-changing. And after this trip, I’ll say it with an even louder voice.

Here are some specific and practical goals for the coming year that God has placed on my heart. Looking forward to what God will do with these things…

1. “Bible Doing” – We know what a Bible Study is, but what about a “Bible Doing”. It is taking a passage of Scripture and going out and doing it! (Idea taken from book “Love Does”)

2. Wedding & Funeral Message Outlines/Scripts – This is something that has been on my mental list for some time. Now it is time to get this together.

3. Music Training Class – With my guitar player graduating this year, I look at my youth group and see very little musical ability. Singing maybe, but not instrumental. Part of my responsibility is to train our young people in ministry…well this may need to start in elementary, so they are ready to play in the praise band in junior high or high school.

4. Junior High Mission Trip – Local trip where junior high students can participate. Evaluate whether this can continue from year to year.

5. Community Project – Connect with neighborhoods and communities, find needs and do what we can as a church to meet those needs.

6. Host “Ask Your Leaders” Night – Provide a night where students can ask those questions on their mind, address doubts, and converse about questions that may not come up in regular discussions.

7. Sunday School Rehab – Conduct Sunday school in a way that promotes the gifts of the teacher; evaluate forming a junior high Sunday school

Something you will hear me say often in reference to short-term mission trips (Barna research has my back on this one), “There is no lesson I can teach or event I can plan that can do what a short-term mission trip can do”. What I mean by that is this, the spiritual life change, the comfort zone breakdown, and the transformation that I consistently see result from these trips…it is hard to reproduce, and it certainly should not be replaced in our youth ministries.

Over the years, God has given me the blessing of being able to lead trips to inner-cities (Chicago/New York), overseas (Barcelona, Spain & Ireland as a student), and more local trips like the mountains of Kentucky and the campgrounds of Scioto Hills. These are some lessons I learned along the way:

Preparation is Key. What if a doctor never studied anatomy…what if a bungee jump operator didn’t learn to tie a knot…what if a hairdresser never went to cosmetology school….the answer, they would cause a lot of damage! And same with mission trips. If you don’t prepare well in advance, you may just cause more damage than good.

Give Expectations Up Front. This isn’t a come to the meetings when you feel like it experience. Each potential team member goes through an interview & application process. As part of the interview, the applicant is given, in detail, all the expectations of the trip, from behavior to training requirements and assignments.

Train Them. Soon, I will need to write a detailed list of the mission training, but here are some highlights: read a book together (ex. Crazy Love, Do Hard Things), unity training (see #5), mission training (curriculum like Prepare.Go.Live), Personal Evangelism Training, Guest Speaker with Professional Training, Trip Presentation to Church, Group Practices (Drama, Crafts, etc.), and accountability (see #4) to name a few.

Keep Them Accountable. They know the expectations (see #2), so keep them accountable. Each time we meet for training, the team is asked about their church attendance, daily time with God, homework, and team responsibilities. Sure, they miss every once in a while, but if it happens twice in a row, the student in warned, and extra assignments follow. If it continues, a meeting the parents and possible dismissal from the team. Behavior can also be a means of dismissal as well.

Work on Unity Early. You may thing unity exercises are silly, but you will thank yourself later if you start them early and often. The transformation I saw from the first time we did the exercises to the last day, it honestly gave me goose bumps to see the difference. It was because we worked at it.

Open Their Gifts. Something we do during training is a spiritual gift inventory and assessment. Following that, I give each student responsibilities based on their gifts. Ranging from team encourager to teaching team, each team is given responsibilities, but because their jobs are connected to their spiritual gifts, it allows them to have a better chance of success, and less chance of frustration.

Raise the Ante. One year I walked out on a limb and had students be in charge of certain groups and given leader responsibilities, such as drama leader or music leader. Sure, I gave them guidance in the process, but I raised the bar in the preparation process, and boy did it pay off! I saw some amazing leadership growth in those students.

Never Underestimate a Teenager. I can remember a shy 9th grader coming into my youth group. He usually sat quietly during events & lessons, saying very little. Well, as the years went by he began to grow, but still had a quiet, shy nature. During his senior year, he signed up for the mission trip to Spain. He was the sound/media leader, which fit his personality. But, I felt he needed more, so I gave him the task of learning a magic trick for the park presentation. That same shy, quiet 9th grader, I got to see him do a magic trick in front of hundreds of people, and use that trick to share the Gospel. NEVER underestimate a teenager…give them opportunities, and push them to new heights in their spiritual lives!

Can I Get a Testimony? Every year we do a wrap up service for the mission trip for our church. It’s great, because many in the church gave towards the trip and were praying faithfully (Prayer cards with a team picture are a wonderful idea), and they want to hear all about the trip. In the past I have asked if anyone would like to share their testimony of what God taught them. This year, I decided to have every member of the team, including leaders, give their testimony. Man was that powerful! Sure, there were some that were extremely terrified, but the audience, especially parents, was extremely grateful. (Next week’s blog – How to Plan a Mission Trip Testimony Service)

Life Transformation. As I mentioned in the intro, there has not been a trip that has gone by that I have not seen at least one student’s spiritual life dramatically change as a result of the trip. There has been dramatic change (not just a mountain experience either) that I have seen in students. Students taking their summers to go back to the mission field we went to on the summer before or students saying they want to work at the mission we served at after college graduation. What a blessing to see lives changed! That makes the effort that goes into #1-9 worth it.

Special thanks to my youth pastor growing up who taught me many of these lessons early, so I didn’t have to learn the “hard way” all the time. Love you PK!